Medellín Youth Network statement, Sept 2010

Public Denunciation

By the Youth Network of Medellín (Red Juvenil de Medellín)

The National Army continues irregular recruitment of youth in the streets of the city.

Public forces represented by the Colombian National Army, disregarding all the constitutional norms and rights contained in the international treaties that regulate the right to personal liberty, continue to perform the so-called batidas or redadas, which are prohibited in the universal system of human rights and in the Interamerican system. [The Public forces] ignore the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the United Nations’ statement on three Colombian cases, and continue depriving the liberty of youth that walk the streets towards their workplace, school, or those simply present in a public space, to take them to battalions, ignoring due process, established in Law 48 of 1993; this practice has become a common act wherein the army holds a batida and take youth to complete their military service.

For this, the Youth Network of Medellin wants to publicly denounce the following acts:

Wednesday, the 8th of September of 2010, a 9:40am, downstairs in the Metro station Parque Berrio, an army truck with a white license plate UNK 046 was being used to take away young people who had not defined their military situation and who were passing by, disregarding whether or not they were studying and/or working; the soldiers asked the young people for their identification documents and kept them, arguing that they had to get in the truck with them to go to the military base to define their military situation and then their documents would be returned.

The same day, at 1:30pm a second truck, without a license plate and with nothing identifying it as a vehicle of the National Army, located in Avenida Primero de Mayo between Junín and Palace, in the same manner as the previous truck, sought to take various young people to the 4th Brigade despite the fact that they stated they did not want to go, and that they had to study. Furthermore, various members of the Youth Network of Medellín walked over to dialogue with the soldiers and to point out the illegality of the batidas and the rights of these young people that the practice violates. First Sergeant Gonzalez, who was in charge of the batida, reacted commanding the other soldiers to force the youth to get in the truck and to take them away immediately. Second Lieutenant Martinez, Second Lieutenant Suarez, and the soldiers Figueroa, Ortiz, and Castro proceeded to load the young people into the truck.

At 12.30pm, downstairs in the San Antonio station, the same thing happened with a white truck. The surprising thing was that it did not bear any number plates either.

At this point the police arrived in order to urge the young people of the YOUTHNETWORKOFMEDELLÍN not to spoil the army’s work of carrying out their illegal batidas. Amongst the policeman present was PATROLLERRICO. Members of the Youth Network informed him of the irregularities: a truck with neither number plates nor badge that was illegally recruiting young people. He proceeded to approach the soldiers, and one of them said to him “There’s nothing I can do about it.”

On the 9th of September during the morning, another truck marked UIP 138 was observed carrying out another batida in Berrío Park, where they were taking away young people, irrespective of whether they were studying and/or working, who had not defined their military situation and who were on their way through the park. The batida was under the command of Second Lieutenant Ruíz of the Juan del Corral Batallion.

That same day, in the afternoon, a second truck with number plates OMK 320 was to be found carrying out a batidaDOWNSTAIRSINTHESANANTIONIOMETROSTATION, where they were taking away young people. CAPTAINESPITIA was in charge of this batida and with him were the soldiers MURICA, PIMENTEL, JARAMILLO and BRAN, belonging to the PEDROJUSTOBERRIO Batallion.

Simultaneously soldiers OSORIO and PALACIOSBENAVIDES, from the Buenos Aires Batallion, were retaining young peoples’ ID cards in Berrío Park as they passed by, if they had not determined their military situation.

Due to the aforementioned actions, and because of the obligations of the State to defend and guarantee human rights, human dignity and liberty, we make the following demands:

TOTHENATIONALARMY, that ITSTOPCARRYINGOUTBATIDAS

TOTHEHUMANRIGHTSOMBUDSMAN, ANTIOQUIAOFFICE, that it verify and correct these actions.

TOTHEINSPECTORGENERAL, specifically the Antioquia human rights office, that it carry out rigorous disciplinary investigations; and a call that it be more alert to the actions of the military in this city.

TOWARRESISTERSINTERNATIONAL, LONDON, that it undertake the relevant investigations concerning arbitrary detentions which, by means of redadas, the Colombian army continues to carry out in Medellín and elsewhere.

TOTHEHUMANRIGHTSCOMISSIONOFTHEUNITEDNATIONS, that it re-examine the case of Colombia in this light, and that it issue a statement in the next sessions.

Equally, we invite all young people from different spheres of life and non-violence to continue resisting this context of militarization, and social and community organizations to continue supporting us and denouncing these cases.